Technological advancement is probably been the most important change in education in the past two decades. The introduction of technology in classrooms has resulted in better, more personalized education where students can learn at their own pace and have more control over what they learn.
Education is a big deal by being part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and it is pertinent that education improves.
The introduction of laptops in the classroom has made it possible for every student to have a device that they can use whenever they want and wherever they are. This is a remarkable improvement from having one computer for the whole classroom, which all students had to share.
Some teachers have started taking advantage of new technologies to create interactive lessons that engage students with the material instead of passively absorbing it, such as online quizzes and games, augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D printing, etc.
Technological advancement in education aims to bridge the digital divide by providing interactive, engaging, and collaborative learning opportunities.
Education and technology are the innovations of the modern era. With the technological advancement in education, we are making our students more intelligent and competitive.
What are the Benefits of Using Educational Technology?
Some key benefits of using Educational Technology in the classroom are:
- Teachers can use different apps to create engaging lessons that students will enjoy.
- Students can learn at their own pace, and it helps them to identify their learning strengths.
- Educational Technology can help teachers to track a student’s progress and develop personalized plans for each student.
Educational Technology is becoming more and more prevalent in the modern world. It is changing how we are teaching our children about education and how they are learning in school.
The benefits of educational technology should not be underestimated. The ways that it has changed the education system for children have been revolutionary. It has made it easier for them to learn and opened up new doors when they aspire to be a professional in any field.
Ways to Get Started with Educational Technology
Nowadays, students are spending more time on their phones or tablets than they are at the library. Technology makes it easier for students to find specific information quickly and get help when they need it.
The ways that this technology can benefit students are touch-typing, video lectures, and virtual reality:
- Touch typing has been found as a good solution for teaching children how to type on a computer.
- Video lectures allow people to learn about courses they may not have taken in-person, like chemistry or music theory.
- Virtual reality is being used in many colleges and universities by professors who want to give students a more immersive experience of what it’s like inside an operating room or even space exploration.
How Technologies Will Disrupt Standard Schooling
First, one of the main criticisms of the existing system currently in use is that it deploys a “one system fits all” and “teaching all students the same way” approach that essentially fails all students – the more intelligent students are bored, and the struggling students become increasingly disengaged.
Second, using a vast collection of instructional videos provides a cheap option for adaptive learning. Personalized learning is encouraged where students can watch these videos at their own pace and need not move on until they are comfortable with the concepts.
In essence, the convenience and accessibility of the content improve student engagement and alleviates teachers from some classroom pressures and stresses.
You Already Use Technology for Your Job, Why Not for School?
In the early 19th and 20th centuries, factories powered their equipment using axles, pulleys, gears, and crankshafts connected to a steam engine and organized their equipment to maximize efficient access to the central power source.
Later, they were replaced (their large steam engines) with large electric motors; the new electric motors were less noisy and produced very little smoke; the problem was they had little impact on productivity.
It wasn’t until several decades later that electrification doubled productivity to the point that factories began putting smaller and smaller electric motors in individual pieces of equipment while organizing the equipment based on the workflow of materials.
Similarly, the impact of technology in education will follow a similar pattern. Most schools today are making online learning part of their classrooms schedule. But substantial gains in student outcomes will only come as they re-engineer schedules, grading, and the whole approach on the courses.
As new online learning resources disrupt traditional resources, schools will, in turn, need to disrupt their traditional instructional models.
Schools have the most fertile opportunities when they use technological advancement to provide learning experiences that would be otherwise unavailable to their students. We do not mean that it is going to replace traditional schools. Instead, it will replace the traditional instructional resources and instructional models that schools have relied on for decades without actually changing with the times.
All types of schools stand to benefit as it amplifies the capacity of their teachers to serve better and instruct their students.
A lot of the criticism has been grounded that these videos like those on YouTube stifle creativity and human interactivity. Expanding content for students and schools is necessary to ensure students can obtain a comprehensive education that is wholesome. This can be actualized by utilizing peer review or group students to enable project learning, fostering leadership and teamwork skills.
We can argue that the teacher role becomes more or less redundant in this scenario where they are disintermediated, and how do you ensure that the teacher remains encouraged to participate in evolving education?
As technology develops and products become more sophisticated, professional assignment helpers from CW Assignments always suggest, “That it is crucial that we not only redefine the teacher role but bring in existing teachers aboard. Teachers need to be taught how to use the technology efficiently and move on from “the traditional teacher” and transition to being that of a facilitator of the personalized learning.”
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